How to Study the Word of God, Part 4

Scriptures:
"But this people, who knoweth not the law, are cursed." (John 7:49)

It was during the feast of Tabernacles that Jesus went to the temple and went to teach. The Jews there we amazed out Jesus' teachings and he said to them, "My doctrine is not Mine, but His that sent Me." (v. 16) Of course word got back to the chief priests and they sent the temple "police" to bring Jesus back to them but they did not do it, saying, "Never did man speak like this man!" (v. 46) As you can imagine the Pharisees were probably quite mad at this point and answering them (the police) they (the Pharisees) said, "this people, who knoweth not the law, are cursed". (v. 49)

All this to say that even the Pharisees knew that if you did not know the Law of God then you were cursed. The Pharisees believed that knowing the Law of God we crucial to "salvation" and they (the Pharisees) "knew" the law so they were the "saved" ones. Jesus, however, said that "you will know the truth and the truth will set you free" and what He (Jesus) was referring to was that we would be set free from the curse OF law . (John 8:32). Thus, knowing the law, and in our case the Word of God, is very important so that we know that we are cursed under the law and that we know how to be saved from the curse of the law.

To continue with ways of studying the Word of God, I want you to know that I have been able to find time to listen to the book of Ephesians about 40 times so far. I decided to listen to book only 50 times in English and listen to it in spanish the other 50 times since our Bible Study on Wednesday night in this book is in spanish. But what I want to suggest in this post is what do you do with this method of study, that is of listening to or reading the scriptures multiple times.

First of all, after about 10 or 20 times through, you will begin to start quoting short phrases or verses that you recall. These short passages of scripture will begin becoming a part of your life. For example, in a couple of my previous posts, you will notice that the book of Ephesians is being quoted a number of times. Why is this? Because my current study in this book is so fresh in my mind that when the Holy Spirit speaks to me about what to share in these posts, He has been bringing to my mind scripture from Ephesians. We can see that by just simply saturating our minds with multiple readings of the scriptures the Holy Spirit has something to use to help us grow.

One of the things that may happen is that your "mind" will start saying, "I know that already" and begin to stray to other thoughts. I don't believe it is my "mind" that is speaking, I believe it is one of our enemies that is trying to distract me. Knowing this, I first rebuke the thought and the enemy that said it and I concentrate even more on what I am listening to. Now this is cool because, I begin to mouth the parts of scripture I am begining to know and focusing on the parts I don't really know or understand yet. Then, I will say from time to time, "Holy Spirit, teach me to know this passage of scripture. Second here is the spiritual battle that comes, and the prayer to, and dependency on, the Holy Spirit which will be part of your study of the Scriptures because the enemy does not want us doing this. (I am sure we can see this by how little so many Christians do not study, or even read, the Word of God.)

Third thing that we can do during or after we have listened to the Scriptures multiple times is begin to write down what comes to our minds. Now this can be things you never recognized before when studying a more familiar passage like Ephesians. We could write down things that the Holy Spirit tells us during our listening. We can also write down more structured thoughts like, How is this book divided? What are the major parts or themes? Who are the people in this book? What are things I need to do, or am learning? (more about this questioning technique in a future post)

Now I suggest you create some kind of a journal using a notebook of some type. Since I am very comfortable with a computer and can type fairly well with few major typos, I have almost eliminated writing things down, when it comes to studying the scriptures. For example, when I am listening to a passage of scripture or reading an article about some theological subject, I copy the text into a Word document. Then while I am listening to an audio file on the computer I highlight certain parts I want to review or recall in colors. I also type notes in either notepad or another Word document. Another way I journal, is by typing my spiritual thoughts, and/or prayers in a blog much like the one we use here.

This does three things for me; One, it gives me a central location where I can journal anything I want from anyplace I am. Two, it eliminates all the paper clutter and filing needed to keep things on paper. Three, it creates an electronic version of what I have recorded so I can search, reference and use in other places my notes both easily and quickly.

One additional thought, if you decide to use a blog to do this journaling, make sure you use one that you think is reliable and will not "disappear" tomorrow. And even if you do, I suggest you keep a local copy of this website, which you can do by downloading a website copying program, on your own computer or some other backup. It would be a shame to journal months or years of notes, only to find out that Google sold out to IBM and in the process lost your journaling.

Request:
That we continue to enhance our bible study techniques so that we will know the Word of God better and so that the Holy Spirit and have more to work with in and for our lives.

Prayer:
Holy Spirit of God, thank you for teaching us through the Bible more about our Lord and the will of God for our lives. Empower us to make the commitment to find more time to study the Word that and bring to our attention all the tricks the enemy uses to inhibit this commitment so that we can rebuke it in the name of Jesus. Amen.